Talk about Doonesbury’s take on the Texas sonogram abortion law

Update 3/16: Today, it gets personal. Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau directly calls out the Texas governor, with the abortion patient suggesting that she would abort a fetus that aspires to be the next Rick Perry. In the context of renewed calls for public civility, especially after Rush Limbaugh’s personal attacks on a woman to testified to Congress about access to contraception, today’s cartoon raises important questions. Does Trudeau take his advocacy of a woman’s right to choose too far, or is this an appropriate response to what many reproductive rights advocates regard as an repressive law?

Update 3/13: Today, cartoonist Garry Trudeau uses the same word that got talk show host Rush Limbaugh in hot water last week. If it’s wrong for Rush, is it wrong for Trudeau? Or does the context of Doonesbury make it OK?

Original post: The “Doonesbury” comic strip this week directly takes on Texas’ law requiring women to have an ultrasound before an abortion.

The series by Garry Trudeau features a woman who goes to an abortion clinic and is confronted by several people who suggest she should be ashamed about her decision. Among them is a doctor who reads a script on behalf of Gov. Rick Perry welcoming her to a “compulsory transvaginal exam,” and a middle-aged legislator who calls her a “slut.”

The strips as always appear on the Doonesbury page in chron.com’s comics section, but we’ll also be publishing them daily in this post in hopes of generating some discussion about the issues they raise.

So, tell us what you think. Is the language in the strips too strong? Does Trudeau accurately depict what the law will require? Is the law a reasonable step to reduce abortion or does it inject the state into the doctor-patient relationship?